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I'm flummoxed with these two rooms- help me

Stage-Show-Sell, LLC is working on another Estate. This one happens to be in my home town of Bloomfield Hills.

We specialise in homes where the families generally live out of state and can't do the work that's necessary to get the home on the market.

Many of the rooms look "normal" with tons of wallpaper and old paint. These two rooms are a bit of a challenge.

1960's Laundry room

This is the first floor laundry that's trapped in the 60s. The wall paper is now gone and I'm working on a new laundry cabinet & sink and floor. The cabinets above are small and not really appealing. We can paint the cabinets white or toss them out. My problem is that they are small. The lower cabinet will hold a large can of soup. The upper would hold two cans of soup back to back. Am I better off painting them or tossing them and putting in two plain shelves to hold the cleaning supplies?

mud room gone amuck

I've seen this kind of hording before with this generation of owners. They have been through two recessions and several depressions and can't throw anything away.

The paper, flooring and cabinet have now been tossed out. The room is next to the laundry and garage. A door where I'm standing with the camera and one on the left going into the garage.

What do I put in there to show that it's a mud room? A catchall for coats, boots and other outdoor gear? This house has 5 bedrooms so I'm assuming that buyers would need such a room. The fix would have to be economical and most of it removable to keep the costs down.

Stage-Show-Sell, offers affordable home staging solutions in the Birmingham - Bloomfield and surrounding areas in getting your home ready for the market. We service both home sellers and realtors. We have the experience, our own rental furniture and accessories to stage many homes. We specialize in Estate work. The house can be put into our hands for the whole process of getting the house on the market

Posted by Virginia Tatseos on 10/14/2009 04:50 PM

Comments (20)

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Originally posted at: Providing Services to Prepare the Home for Sale: I'm flummoxed with these two rooms- help me

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20 Comments on I'm flummoxed with these two rooms- help me

OCT

In the laundry room just remove those awful cabinets and put in some shelving. For the mud room, I would take everything out, paint it a nice neutral color and hang some hooks for coats. Period.

I would ditch the cabinets in the laundry room completely. Make it clean and bright and let a buyer decide what they would do for supplies. If they upgraded the appliances to those with drawers under than problem fixed.

In relation to the mud room, Everything out, then mabe a sit on bench with a lid. Store under the seat. Then perhaps double hooks for backpacks, coats etc.

Yep... i'm in agreement with removing the cabinets and adding shelving - simple shelving... maybe with some nice baskets on them.

for the mud room... remove the cabinets, add a bench and some coat hooks... keep it simple and classy...

You've rec'd some great suggestions here. Keeping it simple, clean, and freshly painted is always best!

I hope your budget allows new lighting too!

OCT

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm thinking of tearing out the cabinets and putting in some floating shelves to hold what ever

Luckily there is room in the budget for new lighting.

I'm off to Ikea for my treasures

Add the wire-bracket shelving...one long wall-to-wall one. Make sure the height is not too tall....Good luck!

Call HGTV quick!!!!!!! They will know what to do!! just kidding

Hey Virginia! If I'm not too late, I would highly recommend shelving too. However, I think in this area of the home, making it adjustable would be key. Melissa's suggestion of baskets is a great one as well. Let us know how the rooms turn out.

It all depends on your budget. I think for the first picture you would want to remove all the cabinets (above the laundry and those to the left of the laundry). If storage is an issue in this home, you could install some plain oak cabinets over the laundry (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=188852-59890-W3630.BDR.UF&lpage=none) and an tall cabinet to the left (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=288973-59890-U182484L.BDR.UF&lpage=none) and tie them together.

If you do not want to spend too much money, you could go with a simple shelf installed over the entire laundry area and a small oak cabinet (pre-made) to the left of the laundry from either Lowes or Home Depot.

For the second picture, I wood look for a square mirror with coat hooks underneath it. If this is a mudroom, it will be used to hang jackets and make sure your hair is not standing up. Once the room is cleaned out and painted, it will look fantastic. If you have the money, you could put one of those benches with spots for your shoes below and above has the coat hooks. It all depends on how the rest of the home looks too.

Let us know how it turns out.

You could also try a simple piece of furniture specifically made for mudrooms, if it's in the budget: Example: http://tinyurl.com/yjej7sg

Beth, that is such a great idea. Thanks for the link.

Today I spent hours walking around Ikea looking for ideas for this house.

I was so tired that I walked out with my list of goodies and will have to go back another day

OCT

Virginia - looks like you have gotten some great advice above so I don't see a need to add anything. I just wanted to let you know that I love the word "flummoxed"! Can't wait to see the after photos. I am sure they will look great.

OCT

Wanda, it will be a couple of more weeks before the after photos are here. I look forward to seeing the final product myself

Hi Virgina, shelving definitely vs old cabinets. Mudroom, you can find and assemble on your own hall trees with built in benches.,very inexpensive add lots of style and interest. They have storage and hooks and some have mirrors which would help widen space.

OCT

When I moved into my fixer, the owner had lived here for 35 years with NO SHELVING in the laundry. No cabinets, no shelves, no nothing...I couldn't imagine...two LONG wire shelves, placed over the whole washer/dryer/and little extra on the end space, allows for hanging off the wire shelves for air drying, and a small "laundry style" display of antique irons on my top shelf...Open shelving, is the way to go, makes the room feel bigger!

OCT

It looks like you have had some doozies lately. Great advice above, these ought to be great before and after shots.

OCT

Glad I'm not the only one who gets these fun projects! Here's a recent shot. Sorry you can't tell what type of room it is -- I couldn't even make it into the room!

OCT

Margaret it looks like a moldy closet to me. Is that the fuse box on the left?

Make it a broom closet :-)

Cindy, all mine are doozies. Stage-Show-Sell specializes in estates and right now the family members that are passing away are the generation of "Don't Throw Anything Away" you never know when you might need it again

NOV

I agree with open shelves and using a bench and hooks in the mudroom. Good luck and would love to see pictures when it's done.

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